Grayhat SEO Use Translation as a Method to Generate Inbound Links

By Xah Lee. Date: 2011-08-12

There's a new technique of gray hat SEO going on.

In the past year, i've got 2 polite requests for translation of 2 of my articles. Basically, someone will contact you (email), and ask you kindly whether you would give permission for a translation of one of your article into one of the eastern european language for their site. The translation is expertly done, by human. Eventually, after they are done with the translation, they'll let you know the URL (which does link back to your article). Then, eventually, they want to you to link back. All the conversation is politely done and cordial. From the conversation, there's absolutely nothing related to SEO or spam.

The problem is, when you look at their url, clearly it's a web hosting site selling web hosting services, and it has absolutely nothing to do with whatsoever with the subject matter of your article. The site simply host translated articles from several i presume highly ranked sites. What they want is a link back from your article, so that their site will rank high in Google search.